"It's Asuma." Kurenai Yuhi stopped, looked to the side, and smiled faintly.
"What a coincidence. Just got off work?" Asuma said with a smile.
"Yes."
"We haven't had a chance to talk alone since I got back. Want to go get something to eat?" Asuma asked, trying to invite her.
"There's no need. My father has already made dinner at home," Kurenai Yuhi politely declined.
She already had a boyfriend and should keep her distance from other men, especially those who were or had been interested in pursuing her.
"Alright then. Can we at least find a place to talk for a little while?"
Asuma was a little disappointed, but he quickly composed himself and said with a serious expression, "I have something very important to tell you."
After a moment of hesitation, Kurenai Yuhi said, "Let's just go to a rooftop. There aren't any shops around here suitable for a private conversation."
"Okay."
Where they talked wasn't important; what mattered was having the chance to speak.
The two of them leaped onto a rooftop, choosing the highest one nearby to stop.
"So secretive. What's so important?" Kurenai Yuhi asked curiously, folding her arms.
Asuma said seriously, "It's about Kogetsu."
"I was taking a walk last night and happened to pass by Kogetsu's house. I saw a woman go inside, and she didn't come out for a long time."
"I got suspicious and kept watch secretly, but that woman didn't come out all night."
"Kogetsu is outrageous. Kurenai, don't be too sad. I..."
Pfft... Kurenai Yuhi suddenly laughed.
Asuma's voice trailed off. No, what's so funny about this?
Wait, Kurenai must be laughing out of anger. This is a sign of extreme sadness!
"Was the woman you're talking about... does she look like this?"
Kurenai then described Nonō Yakushi's appearance, which left Asuma both shocked and deeply embarrassed.
"Is that woman a relative of Kogetsu's?"
"Did I just make a huge mistake?"
Kurenai Yuhi shook her head. "No, Sister Nonō is indeed Kogetsu's girlfriend. She was with him before I was."
"I've known about this for a long time. It's not just me; many people in the village know, including my father."
"You just got back, so you wouldn't know. It's a normal misunderstanding."
Asuma was stunned. He asked blankly, "Kogetsu has two public girlfriends?"
"Then Kurenai, why are you still..."
"Can't understand it?" Kurenai Yuhi said with a faint smile.
Asuma nodded blankly.
"Kogetsu said he liked me, and to be honest, I had feelings for him too."
"First, Kogetsu is outstanding in every way. Second, Kogetsu takes great care of me and always considers my feelings."
"Third, Kogetsu saved my father—my only relative—during the Nine-Tails incident."
"But those reasons alone weren't enough for me to agree to date him so quickly, to share him with another woman. I would have struggled with it for a while."
"There's another reason?" Asuma asked, still dazed.
"Yes. Kogetsu-kun promised that when we have children, one of them will take the surname Yuhi to carry on the Yuhi family line."
"That was the weight that tipped the scales, allowing my father and me to make our decision."
"This..." Asuma was at a loss for words.
Not only was she willing, but her father was too. What argument could he possibly make against that?
"Asuma, thank you for looking out for me."
"It's getting late. I should head home for dinner. Goodbye."
After saying this, Kurenai Yuhi didn't wait for Asuma's reaction and disappeared in a flash...
Watching Kurenai's departing figure, Asuma opened his mouth to speak several times, but in the end, nothing came out, as if his vocal cords were glued shut.
More than ten minutes later, Asuma summoned Ebisu to a nearby training ground and questioned him angrily.
"Why didn't you tell me about Nonō Yakushi?"
Ebisu was confused at first, then spread his hands helplessly. "Can't you guess why I didn't tell you?"
"Uh..." Asuma's expression froze, and his anger deflated like a punctured balloon, vanishing rapidly.
"Asuma, you missed your chance. You never should have left Konoha."
"But you don't have to be too heartbroken. Kurenai is a great woman, but that doesn't mean there aren't other good women in the ninja world."
"With your qualifications, you'll definitely find someone you like."
Asuma grabbed his hair in anguish. "I can't accept it! You don't understand. You don't understand the feeling."
It was the feeling of an idealized first love. To Asuma, Kurenai was that 'one that got away,' and the memory held a powerful grip on him. As time passed, the power of that ideal grew so strong that even Kurenai herself couldn't live up to it, because it was born from the memory of initial beauty, a perfect fantasy!
"I may not understand that feeling, but what good does not accepting it do?"
"It's too late. You have absolutely no chance of winning now," Ebisu said helplessly, pushing up his round sunglasses.
Asuma suddenly looked up, his eyes slightly red. "What if I swallow my pride and go beg my father and older brother?"
Ebisu analyzed rationally, "Putting aside the extremely small chance that the two lords would intervene in this matter, even if they did, what could they do?"
"As long as Kogetsu stands his ground, there's nothing they could do. They can't just order the two to break up, can they?"
"Konoha can't afford any more turmoil right now. One of the Sannin has already defected. Can we really afford to force out a rising pillar of the new generation?"
"Even if the two lords were to side with family over reason, the Hokage's Advisor, the two Elders, several of Konoha's department heads, and many other ninja wouldn't agree."
"I'm afraid even they wouldn't dare go against the prevailing sentiment."
"Asuma, ask yourself honestly, do you carry that much weight?"
Asuma's head drooped in defeat. He took a cigarette from his pocket, lit it, and took a deep drag, his mind racing with a fierce internal struggle...
Other methods wouldn't work. Maybe the only way was to target Kurenai.
If he could make Kageyama Kogetsu disgusted with Kurenai, he might break up with her, and then he'd still have a chance.
The easiest and most direct way to make a man disgusted with his woman is to make him believe she's been unfaithful.
But should he really risk everything to do something so despicable and shameless?
Kageyama Kogetsu was one thing, but he and Kurenai grew up together. She had been his dream since childhood. How could he hurt her like that?
His father had mentioned something Master Jiraiya once said: "A ninja is one who endures!"
It was one thing if he wasn't an excellent ninja, but was he not even a competent one?
Then what was the point of leaving Konoha all these years, of struggling on his own? To prove to his father that he was just a useless piece of trash?
Forget it. Let this be the end of it. Maybe loving someone means being happy just seeing them happy.
Whoosh... Having thought it through, Asuma instantly felt much better. He exhaled a long plume of smoke, then reached out and slung his right arm around Ebisu's neck, grinning.
"Come on, go drinking with me. I'll get wasted and it'll all be over."
"But I'm not quite an adult yet," Ebisu said, looking troubled.
"Are you my friend or not?"
"Tonight, we drink until we drop. Tomorrow, I'm leaving Konoha for the Capital of the Land of Fire."
"Alright, if I have to break the rules, I'll break the rules," Ebisu said with resignation.
"Now that's what a good friend does. Let's go."
The two left the training ground arm in arm, heading towards an izakaya...
As the saying goes, it's never too late to rein in at the cliff's edge.
Fortunately, Asuma's character was fundamentally decent, and he extinguished his wicked thoughts in time. Otherwise, he would have brought about his own destruction!
No, perhaps even death would have been a difficult escape; he would have suffered a fate worse than death.
He might have even implicated his father, his older brother, and the entire Sarutobi clan. Even Konoha would have struggled to avoid being affected by the major turmoil.
With Kageyama Kogetsu's current temperament, he would never have handled it quietly. He would have retaliated with overwhelming force!
The next afternoon, after sobering up, Asuma left a letter and quietly departed from Konoha.
Kageyama Kogetsu knew nothing of these messy affairs. In the contest between love rivals, he had won without even fighting...
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